A New Adventure (Part 19)

It was a real honour to be asked to judge prisoners’ short stories for the Koestler Trust, who help prisoners rehabilitate through art. Ten years ago, I won a Koestler Award for a short story, which I read to an audience at London’s Royal Festival Hall. It got me a place on the Koestler mentor scheme, and I was assigned a published author, who helped me achieve my writing goals and launched me as an author. My sessions with my mentor are all available here.

There has been lots of Making a Murderer news. Kathleen Zellner filed a 1,272-page notice for post-conviction relief. She named Ryan Hillegas as the lead murder suspect and accused Ken Kratz of fraudulent conduct. The motion was so significant that I have replaced the chapter at the end of Unmaking a Murderer with a new chapter titled “Did Ryan Hillegas Kill Teresa?” which you can listen to me narrate here.

The Federal Court ruled in favour of Brendan Dassey, and mandated that some action must be taken within 90 days such as retrying him. The corrupt State of Wisconsin is throwing vast taxpayers resources at holding this innocent young man in prison because they don’t want to pay millions in compensation. It’s despicable that they have not only destroyed a mild-mannered teenager’s life, but that they continue to incarcerate him with zero evidence of him ever committing a crime.